TY - JOUR
T1 - Decentralized chemical processes with supercritical fluid technology for sustainable society
AU - Arai, Kunio
AU - Smith, Richard L.
AU - Aida, Taku M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Monbukagakusho) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors acknowledge Dr. Hideo Hattori and Dr. Kiyoshi Tajima of Genesis Research Institute for many useful discussions and assistance along with much helpful advice.
PY - 2009/1
Y1 - 2009/1
N2 - For sustainable society, the design philosophy of chemical processes will need to be changed from large-scale mass production systems to decentralized local-scale production systems so that chemicals and energies can be supplied from diverse biomass and other renewable resources. Supercritical water allows fast reaction rates, high selectivities and high-yield conversions of many biomass and biomass-related feedstocks and allows chemical transformations to occur with compact devices. Supercritical carbon dioxide allows selective separations, efficient transformations, and low-energy processing of many types of materials. In this overview, sustainability is examined with respect to available solar energy, UN Millennium Development Goals, the carbon cycle and competing factors that affect sustainable society. Through a general block diagram for a biomass refinery, material conversions of biomass and biomass-related compounds are discussed along with a proposal for using supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) with biomass boiler to produce energy and a biorefinery on a 100 ha land area. Supercritical fluid technology, especially water and carbon dioxide solvents, can provide the basis for decentralizing chemical processes and for achieving material recycles for sustainable society.
AB - For sustainable society, the design philosophy of chemical processes will need to be changed from large-scale mass production systems to decentralized local-scale production systems so that chemicals and energies can be supplied from diverse biomass and other renewable resources. Supercritical water allows fast reaction rates, high selectivities and high-yield conversions of many biomass and biomass-related feedstocks and allows chemical transformations to occur with compact devices. Supercritical carbon dioxide allows selective separations, efficient transformations, and low-energy processing of many types of materials. In this overview, sustainability is examined with respect to available solar energy, UN Millennium Development Goals, the carbon cycle and competing factors that affect sustainable society. Through a general block diagram for a biomass refinery, material conversions of biomass and biomass-related compounds are discussed along with a proposal for using supercritical water oxidation (SCWO) with biomass boiler to produce energy and a biorefinery on a 100 ha land area. Supercritical fluid technology, especially water and carbon dioxide solvents, can provide the basis for decentralizing chemical processes and for achieving material recycles for sustainable society.
KW - Biomass boiler
KW - Material recycle
KW - SCWO
KW - Supercritical water
KW - Sustainability
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U2 - 10.1016/j.supflu.2008.11.008
DO - 10.1016/j.supflu.2008.11.008
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:58149349713
VL - 47
SP - 628
EP - 636
JO - Journal of Supercritical Fluids
JF - Journal of Supercritical Fluids
SN - 0896-8446
IS - 3
ER -